Cop 9 Tax Investigation

Cop 9 Tax Investigation

If you have been issued with a COP 9 notice it is because HMRC suspect you of serious tax fraud. COP 9 investigations are intrusive and time consuming and can become stressful if they aren’t managed properly.

We are Code of Practice 9 specialists with extensive experience dealing with HMRC investigations and we can help guide you through the process.

What are COP 9 investigations?

COP 9 investigations are opened when HMRC suspect serious tax fraud. HMRC can go back as far as 20 years to reclaim tax and COP 9 investigations are only opened when HMRC expect to reclaim taxes in excess of £75,000 and often as much as £500,000. COP 9 investigations are civil investigations but failure to comply can result in a criminal investigation and prosecution.

Under Code of Practice 9, individuals are given immunity from prosecution in exchange for a full and complete disclosure of all irregularities in their personal tax affairs via the Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF).

CDF Key Points:

Under the CDF HMRC agree not to criminally investigate and prosecute you over the fraud you disclose in the CDF contract

In return you must:

Respond within 60 days, failure to do so will be treated as you declining the offer to disclose. A tax investigation will be opened and you will no longer be immune from prosecution

Tell HMRC about all the tax you have evaded, with no exceptions

Sign a statement to say that you have provided accurate and complete details of the tax evasion

Pay all taxes, duties, interest and penalties due

Stop any evasion immediately

Where individuals decide to co-operate with HMRC, they will normally be invited to complete a Disclosure Report which will contain:

a brief business history

a description of all tax irregularities (including any innocent or careless errors) and how these were carried out

quantification of all the irregularities

information to show how you quantified the irregularities and ensured that nothing had been missed

summaries of tax and/or duties, interest and penalties due

a reconciliation of the irregularities with the summary of tax and/or duties

a certified statement of your worldwide assets and liabilities

certificates of bank accounts and credit cards operated

HMRC encourage those under COP 9 investigation to appoint a professional adviser to guide them through the process and negotiate with HMRC on their behalf.

Negotiate and work to reach a fair and final settlement, including reducing penalties where possible.

Negotiate a reasonable and affordable payment period

Fees – our prices are competitive and we will do our upmost to ensure that our professional fees are fair and reasonable

For a face to face meeting with a client services team member, contact us on (+44)0207 183 9448 or email: dilwar.hussain@bts-online.co.uk

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Birchtree Sullivan has been providing accounting, advisory and tax services to business owners in London and across the UK. Our London office, based in the Docklands, boast one of the region’s growing specialist teams advising business owners in a number of sectors.